KEY POINTS:
Mark Walker uttered a handful of words yesterday that could turn into one and a half million dollars in the next 36 hours.
They are certainly words the connections of outstanding Sydney filly Samantha Miss will not want to hear.
Asked how he felt Princess Coup measured up
physically compared to when she scored her stunning $2 million Kelt Capital Stakes victory last start, Walker replied in that matter-of-fact way we've come to know as a voice of understatement.
"Oh, she's definitely improved from Kelt day."
Some would argue Princess Coup doesn't need to do any more than she did on Kelt day to take tomorrow's weight-for-age championship, the A$3 million ($3.36 million) WS Cox Plate.
But an improvement - that's something else.
"I deliberately left a bit in her for the Kelt. The Cox Plate has always been her grand final and she's better for this race."
So who can beat the outstanding New Zealand mare in the Southern Hemisphere's weight-for-age championship?
If you absorb the record of 3-year-old fillies in the race, you conclude that joint favourite Samantha Miss can't beat her.
Racing on Moonee Valley for the first time almost certainly won't be a problem because the astute Walker took Princess Coup to Moonee Valley to work there on three occasions when the mare tackled last year's Melbourne Cup.
So, can the weather beat her? No. Moonee Valley's surface absorbs water so that it is rarely worse than dead and, anyway, the forecast is for clear skies.
Will Opie Bosson's woes with officialdom over the drug testing drama at Te Rapa impact on the result? Will his concentration be where it's required?
For most jockeys you might have a doubt. But Bosson is one rider who seems totally impervious to pressure, which is a large part of why he is such a great big-race jockey.
All of which makes the $4 in Australia look a handy price for New Zealand's turf queen.
Last night she had shortened right up to $2.60 on the New Zealand TAB, but a lack of support for her in Australia has seen her drift to be joint favourite with Samantha Miss at $4.
"There is no interest in her at all except for that one decent bet we had on her from New Zealand yesterday," said DoubleBet's bookie Brian Taylor.
Samantha Miss is regarded as tough - and she's going to need to be.
It's 32 years since a 3-year-old filly, Surround, took a Cox Plate and she was the first of her age and sex to achieve the feat.
Two years ago Miss Finland had a similar form background as she took on the older horses in the Cox Plate.
Some say she may have won but for the controversial Lisa Cropp ride that Australians will be talking about two decades from now.
Miss Finland finished mid-field, but the jury is out on whether the ride cost her one of the great moments of racetrack glory.
Samantha Miss has a featherweight 47.5kg to carry and rider Glen Boss is wasting heavily in search of Cox Plate glory.
It might not be ideal to have a jockey so wasted and dehydrated on such a massive occasion, but Boss' experience in major races balances the risks.
Boss is an "adrenaline" rider and that will carry him a long way.
Part of the reason Princess Coup has been a drifter in Australia is because Australians have been continually speculating on the likes of Zipping, Alamosa, Sirmione and, believe it or not, Maldivian.
Maldivian is into $15, remarkably short given his recent below-par form. Zipping, on a Melbourne Cup path, has been solidly backed from $12 to $10 and late yesterday was in to $9.
Toorak Handicap winner Alamosa was $10 in from $11.
